Yiddish Has No Future in Poland, Says Minister of Education Dobrucki

May 14, 1928

Warsaw (May. 12)

(Jewish Telegraphic Agency)

Yiddish as a language has no future in the republic of Poland, Minister of Education Dobrucki told a delegation composed of Senators Schabbad and Rubinstein who came to ask that the Ministry grant state rights to two Yiddish high schools now functioning in Vilna.

The Minister declared that he is not a chauvinist. He understands the need and significance of Yiddish as a language of instruction in elementary schools for the Jewish population. He is, however, opposed to the establishment of Yiddish high schools for the insufficient knowledge of the Polish language on the part of the graduating Yiddish high school pupils will hamper them in their careers. It will also make it difficult for them to enter Polish colleges. Generally, the Minister continued, Yiddish has no future.

The Senators pointed to the fact that recognition of the mother language in elementary schools is not a novel procedure, since even the Duma, the Russian legislative body under the Czarist government, had recognized the necessity of it. As to the future of Yiddish the Senators argued it may be judged by the recent growth of modern Yiddish literature and the development of the language as a cultural medium of expression. The pupils of the Yiddish high schools will master the Polish language in a degree not below the standard of the general high schools.

Minister Dobrucki promised to visit the high schools in Vilna, after which he will make the decision.